The system of Equilibrium, which governs the society staged by Cassie Bérard in her fifth novel, is a kind of penitentiary Utopia. The large prison institutions have in fact been dismantled in favor of cells installed in the courtyards of citizens called “guards” and governed, among others, by “openers” whose identity is kept secret and who are forced to remain silent in the community. subject of their function. However, escapes are increasing, probably orchestrated by an organized group.
Estelle Robert is leading the investigation on behalf of the system. Its advantage is that in the society set up by the Citizen Party, everything is filmed. It helps to identify the culprits, but not necessarily to understand their motivations. It does not have free rein either: friction with the police is numerous. The novel is also interested in parallel to Laurent Lefebvre, an ethicist perceived as a defender of a faceless regime, who questions more and more about its relevance, its brutality and its impartiality, with the legal errors that he makes possible.
The balance plunges the reader into a world à la 1984, but from a new angle. Cassie Bérard delicately builds a society where everyone is trapped in a system that nevertheless wanted to be more human. In the background, she also asks what separates the good citizen from the criminal, explores with acuity the feeling of loneliness and questions individual freedoms and responsibilities. His novel is not strictly speaking a thriller: it is weighed down by more theoretical passages and the action is very often narrated rather than shown. Without holding in suspense, it testifies to a well-conducted original vision which, for its part, intrigues and makes you want to follow it until the end of its demonstration.
The balance
Cassie Berard
The wick
276 pages